Practice full Autos to the Deck in the MH-60R and S are prohibited maneuvers. Auto profile ends in a power recovery <25KGS and about 30ft. We do them in the sim (obviously), but those are more to practice Complete Loss of T/R Drive to an auto, and the peripheral and "seat of the pants" cues in the sim aren't great.

Interests:Fixed Wing and Helo trucker. I enjoy being a chopper jockey, and trying to figure the world, people and belief systems out. I'm not very good at it, so it keeps me real busy. I scribble, blog, run a website, (www.writersharbor.org) run rental houses, ride motorbikes, and read as much as I can. I went solo 44 years ago, and I like to say I'm gonna get me a real job one day. When I grow up. ("but not just yet, Lord, not just yet")
For my aviation scribbles see www.chopperstories.com.... enjoy!

Posted 20 September 2014 - 05:01

Seem to be plenty of vacancies in Texas for PHI EMS.

There is ONE less now, 'cos I humbly applied for one of them. got it, waiting for class date.

After 10 years 4 months flying for them offshore (Gulf and Angola), seemed a nice change of pace. And right beside an area in Texas where I have a house rental business going.

Also scenic, lakes, boating, motorcycling, etc.

Reasons for hop-skipping across:

+++Location, location

+++ I was surprised (when i did the research) that there was a "Geographic differential pay" for the location, which coughs up another $220 or so per bi-weekly pay check.

+++plenty of work-over. That's dead in the Gulf for 407 turkeys. This year has been terrible. $26,000 last year in w/o and only $3,000 so far this year.

+++ Change of pace

+++ flew EMS before for another operator, and hated it. Nurse politics, no support, treated like.... dirt. Heard varying, but a lot of good stories about the way my employer does the business. Let's give it 100 %, no 110%, and see if this can work.

+++ nice to get back into NVG's. Flew them before in LE.

+++. and off-road landings, as indicated above by others, has its satisfaction, and same for being single pilot PIC. The two crew never satisfied me. Ask ANY two crew captain "If the money was the same, which would you choose? A 407 or a S76 / S92?" And the ones I have asked, so far, without exception, have given me that funny look reserved for people who ask stupid questions, or crawl out of damp corners. All (so far) have said they would unhesitatingly choose the 407, for fun.

Anyway, wish me luck. Back to being the junior kid on the (new) block. Polish up my P's and Q's.

(you can do it, Moriarty, you can do it...) (Just watch those nurse jokes...)

Interests:Fixed Wing and Helo trucker. I enjoy being a chopper jockey, and trying to figure the world, people and belief systems out. I'm not very good at it, so it keeps me real busy. I scribble, blog, run a website, (www.writersharbor.org) run rental houses, ride motorbikes, and read as much as I can. I went solo 44 years ago, and I like to say I'm gonna get me a real job one day. When I grow up. ("but not just yet, Lord, not just yet")
For my aviation scribbles see www.chopperstories.com.... enjoy!

Posted 20 September 2014 - 15:38

Remember that wires are everywhere and, as you recall, it's not your emergency...

Ain't that the truth. If you had to write down the Golden Rules for EMS pilots,

"watch 'em bloody wires"

would be right up there alongside

"beware inadvertent IMC"

and

"beware inadvertent slow descent at night over black".

Leaving out the nurse wise-cracks (we'll poke fun later in that department, maybe), what else jumps instantly to your mind? Oops, if the O.P. doesn't mind me, that is.

Somewhere, I got a scribble about frightening myself with wires. True story. 100%. Not even my infamous "99%". Lemme see if I can dig it out, and pollute the polite forum.

Okay, found it, and just posted it, for what it's worth. (probably not-a-lot).

Here's the link. Just sent shivers down my spine remembering that day.

One thing you need to watch for along the shore is kites. I've seen them flying >300' above the ground, and some of them are very large. Those require very strong line, which can bring you down one way or another. Once, flying along the beach east of Galveston, under a 300' broken ceiling, I saw one flying above the clouds, just happened to see it dead ahead through a break in the ceiling. I banked very hard, and somehow missed it. You have to pay attention, to everything, all the time, if you want to live to be old. I'm still trying.

The coastline is always a high-traffic area. It makes for easy navigation (ocean on the right/land on the left or vice versa and you can't get lost) and good sightseeing. VFR flight following is your friend.

Why would anyone want to fly a kite above a cloud where you can't even see it?

Francis Meyrick likes this

"Why can't we buy just one airplane and let the pilots take turns flying it?"--President Calvin Coolidge

Interests:Fixed Wing and Helo trucker. I enjoy being a chopper jockey, and trying to figure the world, people and belief systems out. I'm not very good at it, so it keeps me real busy. I scribble, blog, run a website, (www.writersharbor.org) run rental houses, ride motorbikes, and read as much as I can. I went solo 44 years ago, and I like to say I'm gonna get me a real job one day. When I grow up. ("but not just yet, Lord, not just yet")
For my aviation scribbles see www.chopperstories.com.... enjoy!